Why do I want to ditch the UX designer role?
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past few years, you surely came across the UX designer role. Widely popular in the 2010s, it is still commonly used in the digital industry. But what does it consist of exactly?
Starting with the basics: what does UX mean?
UX = User Experience
“So what?” you may think out loud… Well, before “user experience” was adopted in a job title, as a methodology or just as a part of a process, “user experience” simply meant a user’s experience as in a person experiencing a product or a service. End of story.
The term “user experience design” came up in the early 90s when Don Norman joined Apple for defining all that UX is, making him the first person to bear UX in his job title.
“I invented the term because I thought human interface and usability were too narrow. I wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with the system including industrial design graphics, the interface, the physical interaction and the manual.” —Don Norman
Does that mean a UX Designer should focus on graphics, interface and interaction (physical or digital)? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t that simple. If you read some UX designer job ads, you’ll find lots of skills that differ from the company’s needs.
The most common ones you’ll find are “persona”, “prototype”, “wireframe” or “user flow”… I have even heard “you’ll do the UX” as a way of meaning “wireframing”.
Scary… (Don’t even get me started on UX/UI).
UX as a whole
Don Norman’s definition speaks for itself: a user’s experience is a mix of different skills. If I rephrase that mathematically:
Job 1 + Job 2 + Job 3 + … + Job N = UX
Like Don Norman, I obviously mean a user’s experience, which by the way is not only digital. It can be an experience a user has while listening to music, eating at a restaurant, visiting a museum or a department store… And all those experiences are unique and different from every human to another because they are feeling-based. They aren't palpable.
We, as designers, do not design an experience. We design multiple elements that make up the experience. It’s a collaborative effort and the result of all our skills combined.
Here’s an example that isn’t digital: imagine you’re going to a fancy restaurant, do you think the chef cooked everything himself? No. The sommelier is in charge of the wine in your glass, the assistant cuts your vegetables, the pastry chef made sure you’d leave tonight on a sweet note, and so on… The chef has built his team and brought everyone together. He will adjust processes and results if needed in order to provide you the most unique experience that you have come to expect when visiting his restaurant.
Now, translate that into an organization: UX should be seen as a practice composed of several design disciplines such as Research, Interaction Design, or Visual Design among others. All these disciplines mixed together with the right amount of each and proper timing will deliver a user experience, and a good one hopefully.
The product era
With the rise of the lean startup methodology, there has been a strong focus on the product lately. This methodology aims to develop a product with shortened development cycles in order to rapidly discover if there is a market fit. This is achieved by iteratively building it and delivering features with added value to the customers. In doing so, companies can reduce market risks. Before that era, designers were the “kings”; all decisions were mainly user related. That ship has sailed and in order to deliver a good product these days, designers need to take part in the product strategy. That’s where the Product Designer comes is.
Before going any further, let’s define what a Product Designer does. Once again, there tends to be a lot of misconception about this role out there. Let me put it this way: a Product Designer IS NOT a UX/UI Designer as many (many) job ads suggest. A product designer still focuses on the user and may handle some UI components, but he has broadened his skillset to the business. This means he can understand the product strategy (the “why” as we say in our language) in order to deliver a product users love, thus moving the company’s business in the right direction.
Are Product Designers the new UX Designers?
As stated above, if UX is seen as a practice, product designers are a part of it. If I’m building my team from scratch maybe that’s what it would look like. Acknowledging that UX is a practice and that someone needs to lead everyone, there should be Head of UX driving this practice. Building a product requires two major phases: the discovery phase and the delivery phase.
The discovery phase focuses on understanding the users and their struggles in order to find a problem that needs solving. It requires skills as research, strategy and fast prototyping. A lead Product Designer (a.k.a. UX Strategist or Strategist Designer…) should work hand in hand with a Product Manager to find impactful features and check if there’s a market fit with the users. Once validated, these features will be implemented in the product’s roadmap. Together, with the collaboration of IT teams (e.g. dev, data…), their goal is to provide an overview of what the future product should achieve, business and experience wise. If research is a serious part of the discovery or relies more on psychological evaluations, the Lead Product Designer can seek assistance from a User Researcher in order to get more qualitative and quantitative insights.
The delivery phase is about creating the solution and getting it in front of the customers to see if it can solve their struggle. It requires crafting and visual skills as well as a bit of research in terms of validation. Ideally, a more hands-on Product Designer will work hand in hand with a Brand Designer as well as a Front-end Developer and the IT teams in order to improve the product day-to-day.
Careful though, this doesn’t mean the roles involved in both phases never talk to each other. In fact, these 2 phases are linked and require moments of sharing for a successful outcome. For example, pain points can be detected during the delivery phase and will require a discovery phase; it will also be necessary to verify during the delivery phase that the objectives set in the discovery phase have been met and, of course, the lead Product Designer is still on the delivery phase to ensure the experience built in the discovery phase is fulfilled.
Moreover, this doesn't mean my team would only be made of Product Designers. They may have a larger skill set but…
A Product Designer won’t study the ecosystem in which your product is located and is not going to care about behind the scenes: you’ll need a Service Designer.
A Product Designer won’t be able to create a brand identity for you or translate a style guide (too often) designed for offline into an online one: you’ll need a Brand Designer.
A Product Designer will not be able to produce illustrations or a set of icons from scratch: you’ll need a very good Visual Designer.
A Product Designer won’t be able to edit a video: you’ll need a Motion Designer.
A Product Designer won’t be able to write all your product’s content: you’ll need a UX Writer.
A Product Designer will not develop your website or application: you’ll need Front End Developers.
To guarantee your product’s quality and differentiate yourself from the competition, you’ll need this whole panel of specialists, which, in my opinion, is my ideal design team.
References:
• https://uxplanet.org/the-golden-age-of-ux-is-over-ac318099c5b9
• https://uxdesign.cc/the-job-of-the-product-designer-and-its-importance-in-a-startup-37f7235f5955
• https://uxdesign.cc/three-reasons-to-designers-not-to-use-the-term-ux-designer-40fc7d2af1ae
• https://uxdesign.cc/why-no-one-should-be-called-a-ux-designer-71226f4d9cd1
